Wednesday 14 January 2015

Have smartphones replaced our computers fully?

Look any where you want to. You'll find people head bent down. Staring at their small screens on their palms. So much has the smartphone industry progressed, that some people think it'd better to own a smartphone rather than a computer. These small little beasts are capable of almost anything. With each advancing versions of the do called flagships. The smartphone is getting scarily powerful with each increment.
There was a time when most of your work was done on the computer and the phones, well to make few calls, text, take a few pics here and there, listen to music (for those who didn't own an iPod) and to make few grainy videos.
But all this changed in 2007, Steve Jobs got on to the podium and delivered a revolution sort of(even though the phone was not that great even by 2007 standards). Many huge companies namely Nokia, BlackBerry oversaw this. Not feeling threatened, after all they were the latest market okayed during that time with Nokia having the kind share of total phones present around worldwide.
Yes there were "smartphones" delivered by BlackBerry, Nokia, Motorola etc. But all that paled compared to simplicity and power of the iPhone.
Then changes began sweeping in. Form factor of the phones changed, keyboards gave way to large screens, batteries got bigger, screens got sharper, chipsets, gpus got scarily powerful. MHz got converted to GHz. Memory got bloated with phones now a days supporting up to almost 320Gbs(case in point Saygus V2). Single core to quad core, octa cores. Finally, In the year 2013 only Apple pioneered it's way into the 64bit club with their new chip present in iPhone 5S, a domain which was long due occupied only by computers and laptops.
Even now maybe the raw computing power may be lagging behind laptops and computers. But soon there'll be a time when phones will surpass them too. And this week be in the near future not very far off.
Day by day reports are coming about more and more people relying on these handheld devices to access the internet rather than computers. Sales of laptops computers are decreeing by the minute and those of smartphone increasing. These smartphone are used for most of their media consumption. Clicking pictures meeting DSLR cameras quality, videos with Optical Image. Apps for productivity on pad with those of computers, editors-photo, video document, pdf almost every editor can be found on the app stored nowadays.
With new low cost devices coming out everyday, and companies announcing devices every other day. Soon almost everyone will be equipped with a smart phone.
Apps developers and accessory makers are also banking on this boom and making a whole lot of benefit out of this too. And the end user is getting spoilt for choice. With millions of apps and accessories to choose from there's almost that one perfect one for everyone
Even right now this blog is being written on my way home on my smartphone. So let me ask you this, have smartphones really overtaken computers and laptops?
Will you part away your computers for a smartphone?

2 comments:

  1. Hi Anuraj,

    I read your first rant and tried to guess your vintage. You just confirmed it. If you look at where we are now compared to where you were in 1968 i am shocked that you cannot see the possibilities. I can do more on my tiny little macbook air than you could with a closet sized computer.

    Regards,
    Swapnil Kharche

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    Replies
    1. Hi Swapnil,

      Haha OK first of all I am not vintage. Now that's out the way. To the main point.
      See the main thing I am emphasizing upon is the rate at which smartphones are developing and how they are getting integrated into our lives. Sure you can do many things on your Macbook air but soon you'll be able to do the same things on a device seated in your arms. In fact most of the things like editing, writing, sufring the net are still there. Ain't they? 
      Now think about this it took more than 100years for the first laptop to appear after the invention of computers. How many years did it take for these small microcomputers to reach desktop class computing? Just 7 years!! Isn't that amazing? All I am implying is that smartphones are moving scarily fast, in fact so fast that a day will come when we'll simply abandon computers because these phones/watches will be able to do anything we can do with macbook airs or any other computer. 

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